Wednesday, October 21, 2015

I
recently finished the fourth workshop of my Change
Your Age: Vitality at Any Age series.
Toward the end, a dedicated, curious student asked, “But whatexercise SHOULD I
do now? I have to keep exercising to
keep my weight down and stay fit.”

Good question.

So,
I explained how small, easy movements might be better for overall well being
than large, difficult ones. I had shown
in the workshop how it was more beneficial to elongate our muscles rather than
stretch them. The students had gotten
the experience of being able to bend forward and backward and how important all
movements are if we want to live a normal life. I reminded the group how we’d talked in class about
not constantly holding our "core," and even experienced letting go of the vaginal muscles (and
how it just might be time to give up on those Kegel exercises learned 30 years
ago.) .

“Well,” she
said, “that just about wipes out whatever exercise routine I had!”

So
what can you do? The short answer is, DO WHATEVER EXERCISES YOU WANT TO DO. I recommend that you do what you like and
what gives you pleasure. That’s because
it’s not about WHAT you do, but HOW you do it.

What
is fitness, really? When I posed that
question to the class, the answers ranged from, “being healthy” to “losing
weight” to “being able to do yoga poses”.
Most still believed they aren’t really
doing exercises or doing it right unless they sweat, feel pain, or work to
exhaustion.

I
am here to say the exact opposite. We do
not gain by exercising beyond the point of pain and stress. We do not gain by straining as we
exercise. We do not gain if we are in too much pain to move the next day.

Alright
then, how do we do “any exercise we want?”
We pay attention. We use
awareness (no matter what type of movement you’re doing!) We move
with intention. This will not only make
you stronger and more heart-healthy, it’ll make moving fun! Here are a few tips to get you started:

1.Have
less ambition and more curiosity about your routine.

2.Strive
for more work rather than more effort: move smarter, not harder.

3.Be
present as you move or exercise. Explore what you are doing.

4.Pay
attention to your breath: how are you
breathing in, how are you breathing out? (Are
you breathing or are you holding your breath?)

Would you like to feel just how awareness feels and the difference it makes?

Sit on the edge
of your chair.

-How do you sit? What part of your buttock is in contact with
the seat?

-Are you on your
tail bone? Or are you all the way
forward, on your pelvic bone?

-What is your
belly doing? (Is it pushing out? Held tightly in?)

-Where is your
head? (Is your chin down, or up? Is your right ear closer to your right
shoulder than the left ear is to the left?
Is your nose facing forward?)

-Are you
breathing? How? Where do you feel your breath? Touch the parts of you that move when you
breathe.

-Lift your right
arm up. Lift your left arm up.

-Bring your arms
down and rest. Just observe.

Take a breath in
and release it, noticing where and how the air travels. If you do this, observe breath, assess where
you are, where all of your parts are,
with every exercise routine, you will definitely get more benefit and
less discomfort from your program. To
continue with our Awareness Through Movement® lesson…….

-Turn and look
to the right. Find your “spot”: where is it most comfortable to easily
see? (No stretching, straining, or
creaking, please!)

-Come back to
facing front.

-(A) Turn and look to the right again, but this
time turn your head and shoulders. Move
slowly. Move just a little bit at a time. Repeat several times.

-(B) Turn your shoulders to the right and hold
them there. Bring your head to the front
several times, keeping shoulders to the right.

-Repeat steps A
& B on the left.

-face front
again

-turn to the
right, turn to the left

Did you range of
motion improve? No stretching here. How
do you sit now? More comfortable? Do you feel connected? Get up and walk. How do you feel? Go, take on your
fitness program.
Move with ease, awareness, and connection.